November 23rd, 2007

This may seem odd coming from somebody who seems to live more online than off, but:

There is something really scary about the way society is going, especially in relation to technology. It’s hard for me to explain, let’s just say that the more time I spend online the more worried I am. I’m already at the point where I am very deliberately opting out of many of the new online “services”. Quite frankly, the news, email and blogs are enough for me. I tolerate facebook, and I still live in teensy weensy bit of hope that linked in might one day prove useful, but that’s it. Well, maybe the odd video every now and then, but that’s it.

([ahem] most videos I’ve watched online have been connected with rugby. I’m serious.)

Of course, the question is:

WHY?

Well, this article goes some way to explaining my increasing discomfort with the technosociety.

So, yes, I’m a technophile luddite. Now excuse me while I build a broadband-connected cabin in the mountains of Montana, from which I will email treatises decrying the evils of the modern technological world to universities worldwide. I will remain true to my pacifist principles and refrain from the use of anything that goes “bang”, though, don’t worry.

Well, no. I will continue on my way, teaching English to IT majors, living as much online as off, all the while growing ever more uncomfortable with just how much my life is documented in shadowy databases and networks right up until the water grows hot enough for me to decide to leap out… if it ever gets that hot.

Still, I just can’t shake the feeling that we’re getting ever closer to the Matrix.

And it irritates me that the best I can do is refer to what has to be one of the most disappointing trilogies in the history of cinema. I loved the first film, but the second two went downhill faster than an F1 car going down Baldwin Street at full throttle.